A/N: It's going pretty slow right now. The next chapter will hopefully be more interesting :)

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It’s snowing hard. White flakes tumble outside in the dark evening, illuminated by the light from the kitchen of a small suburban home.

Minseok glances up at the clock. 7:30.

He sits at his kitchen table alone, grinding a fingernail across a groove in the wood.

Forwards. I like him.

Backwards. I don’t like him.

Forwards. I like him.

Backwards. I don’t like him.

Jongdae is coming to pick him up in 15 minutes. They’re supposed to be going out to dinner with all of their friends, but Minseok doesn’t really want to go. After all, Sehun is going to be there.

Minseok doesn’t know what to think. He doesn’t think he could go and see Sehun and Lu Han together and pretend to be happy. He can’t watch them talk and laugh with each other while he stands apart. But then again, he can’t stay home and be miserable all evening. Chen will be there, and so will everybody else. He doesn’t have to look at him.

Minseok resumes scratching the wood with much more strength.

Forwards. I like him.

Backwards. I don’t like him.

Forwards. I like hi-

Minseok stops halfway across the wooden groove at the sound of his doorbell. Jongdae must be here to get him. He forgets all his feelings of wanting to stay home and runs up to the door, hurriedly opening a closet. He pulls the door open, stamping his heels into shoes and whipping out a jacket as fast as he can.

“Chen, sorry, I’ll just be a minute.” He looks up, expecting to see Jongdae’s cheery face outside his door.

He finds himself staring, just inches away, into Sehun’s emotionless eyes.

Minseok gasps in surprise and steps back. “I’m sorry. I was expecting Jongdae.”

“Jongdae asked me to get you. He said he’d be late, and that he texted you but you weren’t answering.”

“My phone is dead. I-- I’m sorry you had to waste time coming for me.” Minseok tries to hide a rising feeling of anger in his chest. He wants to hit him. He wants to kick him halfway across the world. Antarctica would be good. His fingers clench.

“It’s okay. I’m picking up Kyungsoo as well. Hurry and get into the car so we can go get him.” Sehun motions to a navy blue painted car parked outside Minseok’s house. Already, there is a layer of snow coating the front windshield. The two of them hurry down the steps, shivering in the cold. Minseok watches Sehun’s breath freeze in the icy atmosphere.

He enters the back seat of the car and sits awkwardly while Sehun brushes off the snow on the car. If only Chen could have come. If only…

As the car pulls away from Minseok’s house and turns the street corner, he realized he forgot to turn off the lights in the kitchen.

There are no words exchanged until the car pulls up at Kyungsoo’s apartment.

“I’ll only be a minute. Stay here.” Sehun runs up to the front doors and disappears behind them.

Minseok doesn’t hear him. He’s staring at a picture lying on the table between the two front seats. It’s a bit blurry, but it’s easy to tell that Sehun and Lu Han are together in front of some sort of coffee shop. Both of them are smiling.

Sehun never smiles.

Minseok picks up the picture, wanting terribly to rip it to shreds. He wants to separate the two of them and keep Lu Han with him. But he couldn’t. It is obvious that Sehun loves the picture as it has been kept in pristine condition.

Minseok carefully puts the image back down, just in time as Kyungsoo opens the opposite door and grins at him.

“Minseok! I haven’t seen you in ages. Where were you yesterday at break?”

“I had…stuff to do.” Minseok tries to smile back. Sehun enters the car again, and notices the change in position of his picture immediately. He glares at Minseok.

“Did you touch that?”

“No, of course not. It must have been the air pressure from the door slamming.” Sehun’s face softens slightly.

“Good. I don’t want that picture ruined. I know you wouldn’t purposefully harm it, but I have to be careful.”

Minseok looks down.

Kyungsoo pipes up. “Ah, Sehun, tell us about how it happened. Tell us everything.”

Sehun’s eyes brighten. “Kyungsoo, you already know. I think the whole school knows now, thanks to Jongdae. He is such a gossip. What is there to tell? I love him. I love him more than anybody or anything. I see myself in his eyes. Eventually, it got to the point where I couldn’t keep quiet anymore, so I told him. And he told me he felt the same way. And that’s how it started. Nothing else to it.”

Minseok realizes he’s clenching his hands again. Lu Han loves Sehun, not you. Lu Han will never even look at you. Forget him. FORGET HIM.

Kyungsoo and Sehun continue talking happily as the car rolls through the streets on the way to the meeting place. Minseok forces himself to put on a happy face as Sehun rambles on about Lu Han and how happy he is. Kyungsoo looks on in awe.

“We’re almost there. Get ready.” Sehun turns into a parking lot next to the restaurant that the group is meeting at. It is snowing very heavily, and the visibility is low, but Minseok can still make out a large group of people gathering around the lit entrance of a restaurant. “There- that’s them.” Sehun locks the car after everybody gets out, and the three of them hurry towards the light.

“Finally! You guys took forever. Let’s go in.” Kim Jong In rubs his arms, looking very cold. However, Minseok doesn't feel too sorry for him, as he has chosen a sleeveless top. Probably to show off his arms to all the females around him.

Minseok enters the restaurant last, and shuts the door, happy to be in the warmth again. He shakes the snow out of his hair and swipes at his jacket before taking it off to hang on a coat rack. His friends are already heading towards a large table at the back of the room, laughing and hanging arms around each other’s’ shoulders.

Minseok smiles, simply happy to see all of them together again. It doesn’t matter if the snow blocks out the stars, it doesn’t matter if he fails his art assignment, and it doesn’t matter if he left the lights on. He’s here, among friends, and everything will be okay.

Minseok stops. He catches a glimpse of the group just before they turn a corner and disappear from view, but something is wrong. Someone is missing. Two people, in fact.

Don’t turn around. Don’t do it. Just go to the table and forget it. Minseok repeats the mantra over and over in his head. Don’t turn around. Don’t do it. Just go to the table and FORGET IT.

It’s useless.

He turns around slowly, not knowing how to stop himself. He knows what he’s about to see.

Outside, in the freezing cold, and the blowing snow, two figures are wrapped around eachother. Their faces are too close, their arms too entangled. Minseok feels his heart stop.

The two figures pull away. Lu Han stares, surprised, at Sehun’s happy face.

Don’t do it, Lu Han. Walk away. Walk away. Walk away now. Minseok prays, wishing hard for Lu Han to leave Sehun alone to wallow in his rejection.

Lu Han smiles, and leans in again.